How Evil Should Thermaplugg Be?

In many ways Mekkatorque and Thermaplugg are defined by their relationship with each other. It’s difficult to talk about Thermaplugg without talking about Mekkatorque. They have a very clear cut and close relationship as antagonists. Gelbin is the hero and Sicco is the villain.

There have been some hints recently that Thermaplugg is attempting to clean up Gnomeregan and cure the leprosy himself. I think that giving Thermaplugg more depth and development is great. Thermaplugg’s actions inform us, as players, first hand of the notorious flaws of the gnomish race, in the same way that that Mekkatorque shows us their greatest strengths. Seeing these two characters in active conflict is exponentially more effective at defining ‘gnome-ness’ than any out of character write up could ever be.

In order for this style of storytelling to work we need both sides to be developed. Both characters to be interesting, engaging and little bit relatable. Thermaplugg being undeveloped undermines Mekkatorque’s development. Warcraft primarily tells it’s story though villains. We spend as much, if not more, time interacting with enemies than we do allied heroes. Confronting evil is how our characters interact with the world and it is how we as players learn to understand life on Azeroth.

I have joked that I would like to see Sicco get redeemed, saved, or even, turn out to have been the good guy all along. It would be fun for me, but it would be bad for gnomes in general. We need him to show us what the moral, ideological, and conceptual failings of gnomes. I feel like currently Thermaplugg is perceived by a lot of people as Stupid Evil. I hope that these new lore hints are leading to something that put an end to that perception.

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2 thoughts on “How Evil Should Thermaplugg Be?”

– He doesn’t want to cure the leper gnomes. The more insane his subjects are, the more subservient they are. He likes the subservience and the power it gives him.

– He did not initially intend on creating leprosy, but he likes the result.

– His genius is diminished by his condition. He’s very good at creating very complicated machines… only he’s concentrating on making a drill to the planet’s core to go to Kalimdor, because it just didn’t click that it’s much cheaper to just go there over the surface.

– A good villain needs a specific goal – and for Themaplugg IMO it would be his obssession with Mekkatorque. He would do anything to spite his rival, cooperate with anyone, sacrifice everything he has, just for that one goal.

– A carry over from his un-diseased life, he’s absolutely narcissistic. He always considered himself the smartest in Gnomeregan and he blew it up to prove that Mekkatorque is dumber than him. Everything he did, was the best. Of course his decision to blow up Gnomeregan wasn’t a mistake! Gnomes are much better off under his reign, even diseased, than they would be under Mekkatorque’s blundering inability to govern and his toadiness to the Alliance.

Totally agree. Especially with your 3rd point, his current condition gives me a lot of leeway when doing RP things with Thermaplugg. Sometimes he has bad days where things seem logical to him that are not, or he can’t remember anything correctly. Other days he is lucid, and almost his old self. It gives his personality an interesting dynamic.

To your last point, his decision to blow up Gnomeregan has been the hardest part of trying to RP him. Trying to understand how the character could have ever justified those actions to himself is the most difficult thing for me to deal with. I think I have trouble even pretending I’m that evil. When addressing it in In Character I mostly have Thermaplugg lie and claim it was an accident. I did at one point think of a convoluted story where he was mostly framed, but eventually decided it was too removed from the lore, and honestly, just unnecessary because it simply shifted the blame elsewhere.